Rubber Flooring – Tips for Cleaning and Maintenance

This entry was posted on 4th February 2013 by The Rubber Floor Store.

The good news is that rubber flooring is fairly easier to clean when compared to other types of flooring like carpeted tiles and wood plank flooring. The not-so-good news is that there are still dos and don’ts for you to take into account if you want your rubber floors to last long.

Light to Moderate Soiling

For light to moderate soiling, you will only need basic cleaning supplies such as a broom and a mop.

Start by using a broom to sweep away dirt and dust, soil, sand, and all other kinds of visible debris clinging to the surface.

Use a vacuum cleaner next. Be sure to vacuum-clean your floors thoroughly as it can clean up what you weren’t able to sweep away with your broom. Hopefully, you’ve also gotten rid of the larger-sized debris in the previous step. Debris that’s too large can cause your vacuum cleaner to malfunction.

Once you’re done with vacuum cleaning and sweeping your floors, give it a more thorough inspection next. You need to check whether the adhesive used for the seams has spilled onto the surface. If it has, you should try scraping it off with an old toothbrush first. If that doesn’t work, you can use it with a neutral cleaner next. A mild soap solution may be used as well, but what you should never do is to use any petroleum-based cleaner for your floors. Such products include paint strippers, thinners, and mineral spirits.

Mopping your rubber flooring should not be any different with how you mop other types of floor. You can use either micro-fibre or string mops. Either way, just make sure that you also use a neutral cleaner or one with a pH balance between 7 and 9. When mopping your floor, don’t drown the floors with water. Just keep the surface damp and you can get to clean it.

Heavy Soiling

With heavy soiling, you will have to start with sweeping and vacuum-cleaning your floors as well. After that, you need to consider the amount of soiling that’s still left. Can you still clean it off with hand-mopping or would it be more practical to use a motorized buffer instead?

If you opt for an auto-buffer, you need to make sure that you’re using only a nylon brush – the soft type – or mild pad with it. Buff the floors by sections. Start by dampening the surface and then buff it clean. Once you have buffed the floor thoroughly, you can then vacuum-clean it the second time. If after all these steps there is still dirt remaining on your floor then you might want to repeat all the previous steps but using a black pad this time.

One thing you should remember when cleaning this type of flooring is to never leave any kind of cleaning solution on your floors for too long. For newly installed rubber flooring, how much cleaning you have to do will depend on who installed your floors in the first place as well as whether they’ve taken great care with the installation or not.